1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an inverter for driving a motor of a vehicle, and more particularly, to an inverter for driving a motor of a vehicle mediating between a battery and a driving motor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Eco-friendly vehicles such as an electric vehicle, a hybrid vehicle, etc., are driven by a driving motor operated by electricity.
A vehicle is heavy, and therefore there is a need to increase the output of the driving motor in order to accelerate to a high speed. The output of the driving motor is determined by a magnitude, a frequency, etc., of an input voltage. In this case, the inverter including a power module is used to adjust the output while a DC current transferred from a battery is converted into an AC current.
Describing in more detail the configuration of the inverter typically used, as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, the inverter is configured to include a power module 10, a power storage module 20, and a cooling module 30. The inverter may further include a housing (not illustrated) enclosing the components.
The power module 10 is a core component that is supplied with the DC current, converts the DC current into the AC current and controls an output and a frequency of a motor. The power storage module 20 is a component that temporarily stores a current supplied from a battery to constantly keep electric energy supplied to the power module 10 and takes up a largest volume in the inverter. The cooling module 30 is a component for cooling the power module 10 that generates heat during the conversion process of current. The inside of the cooling module 30 is provided with a plurality of cooling passages and thus has cooling water, etc., circulated in the cooling passages to cool the power module 10.
To reduce the volume of the inverter, there is a need to optimize, in particular, a size of the power storage module 20 among the foregoing components. The power storage module 20 comprises a capacitor that is proportional to a size and power storage capacity. Here, the power storage module 20 deteriorates when the temperature of the components is increased and thus the power storage capacity thereof is reduced. As a result, minimum capacity, that is, a minimum volume of the power storage module 20 is calculated in consideration of that aspect.
If the power storage module 20 can be effectively cooled, the volume of the power storage module may be minimized. But if the cooling is not appropriately made and thus temperature is increased, the volume of the power storage module 20 needs to be increased to take in account the deterioration in the power storage capacity.
Meanwhile, if the distance between the power module 10 and the power storage module 20 is increased, leakage inductance is increased, such that deterioration in performance is caused due to a momentary voltage spike. Therefore, the related art has used a structure in which the power module 10 and the power storage module 20 are installed directly adjacent to each other.
For existing inverters, FIG. 1 illustrates a vertical coupling structure and FIG. 2 illustrates a horizontal coupling structure. As illustrated, when the power module 10 and the power storage module 20 are adjacent to each other, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the power storage module 20 and the cooling module 30 are spaced apart from each other and thus the power storage module 20 may not be cooled by the cooling module 30. Alternately, when the power module 10 and the power storage module 20 are adjacent to each other as illustrated in FIG. 2, the size of the cooling module 30 becomes excessively large, thus causing the size of the inverter to become large.
Therefore, a new inverter structure capable of maintaining performance by minimizing leakage inductance occurring between the power module 10 and the power storage module 20 while minimizing the size of the power storage module 20 by cooling both the power module 10 and the power storage module 20 is required.
The matters described as the related art have been provided only for assisting in the understanding for the background of the present disclosure and should not be considered as corresponding to the related art known to those skilled in the art.